


Learn By Doing

by missmishka



Category: Big Eden (2000)
Genre: M/M, meddling menfolk, misguided gift giving, virgin character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 01:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmishka/pseuds/missmishka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim, Lloyd and the rest of the guys decide that Pike maybe needs some guidance in going forward with Henry so they get him a book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learn By Doing

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: The usual warnings, I claim no ownership of these characters, they are simply borrowed with love and adoration from the original creators to have their stories, thoughts or circumstances embellished on a little more than the original format had done. Not for any profit.

Lloyd found the book and no one questioned the how, where or why of his getting it.

The idea was hatched to stick it in the lending library where Pike was bound to find it.

It was only natural, though, that they’d look it over themselves first to make sure it actually suited their purposes. 

Wheeler kept watch outside the store while the others gathered inside when Pike left in the afternoon to take a fresh cooked lunch over to Henry and make sure the man wasn’t so caught up in painting that he forgot to eat.

The rest of the Dwarves, as Big Eden so fondly dubbed them, passed the book around like they would have a girly magazine back in their long faded youth. 

“So, which of ‘em do you think … you know?” Bird asks, studying an illustration with curiosity and twisting his head and the book as if a different angle would give him better insight.

“Don’t none of us need to be thinking of _that,_ ” Jim chastises, snatching the book away and resisting the urge to smack his friend with the hardcover volume.

“Who’s to say they even need this?” Dick said when his turn came and he did little more than scan the title on the front and the description on the back.

“They clearly need _something_ ,” Lloyd harrumphs around his pipe.  “Been three months now and they’re still dancing around each other like a pair of virgins.”

They all go still at that and look away from the book to exchange glances with one another.

“You don’t think they’re actually …,” Bird asks what they’re all suddenly thinking.  “They’re grown men!”

“Before Henry, when’s the last time any of you remember Pike showing an interest in _anyone_?” Lloyd asks.

“Just because he’s never shown an interest doesn’t mean he’s never had experience,” Jim defends his friend.

“Just like you said his cooking didn’t mean he was courting Henry and look how wrong you turned out to be on that.”

Jim glares at Leon for that jibe and makes a mental note to leave out the hazelnut syrup that his friend was so fond of when he made him his next cappuccino. 

“That’s neither here, nor there,” he stands and moves to collect the book from Fulbright.  “The point of this is guidance.  Pike likes his homework and it won’t hurt them to have some instructions laying around.”

“Does anyone really need instructions on …,” Bird reclaims the book and thumbs it open to a random page about halfway through; “Licking?” he asks as he sees the title of the entry that he’d found.  His brow knits with curiosity at his own question and they all watch as he begins to actually read the page, lips moving silently as he went until his eyes suddenly popped wide and he slammed the book closed.  “Pike can never see this.”

“Why the Sam Hill not?” Lloyd asks, indignant as he takes the book and opens it up to seek out whatever his friend had read.  “So what’s wrong with all of that?” he asks when he finishes the page without the shock Bird had shown.

“They’re talking about licking … _there_.”

“Well of course they are.  Where else is a man supposed to lick another man?  You ain’t so squeamish when the idea’s of a woman licking yours.”

“Not _there_ ,” Bird casts a telling glance at his own crotch then shifts uncomfortably in his chair.  “ ** _There_** ,” he wriggles his backside around to signify where he meant.

A chorus of comprehending “Ahs” fills the room followed by a quieter round of “Ohs.”

They all fall quiet and find great interest in everything in the shop unrelated to the book laying open on Lloyd’s lap.

“Well,” Jim clears his throat after an uncommonly long silence among the gathering.  “If that’s what they do, then that’s what they do and I’m sure Pike’ll have no problem reading about it.”

He rises, pulls off his hat to scratch his balding head then put the cap back in place as he moves to collect the book. 

“You sure we want to be doing this?” Lloyd asks as he jumps up to trail Jim to the Lending Library bookcases.

“What the …,” Jim pauses, drawing back to stare at the other man in aggravation.  “This was your damned idea!”

“Hell, Jim, you’ve said yourself more than once that thinking’s not what God made me for.  What if Bird’s right?  Maybe we should get something more … subtle.”

“On the dark side of thirty the last thing that these fellas need is _subtle_.  We agreed and we’re doing this,” Jim declares, but his hands do hesitate at the act of actually putting the book on a shelf.

“Seems fitting to me,” Fulbright says as he moves to join them.  “It started with Pike taking down that Joy of Cooking cookbook, so why wouldn’t he appreciate a book about the Joy of Gay Sex now that he’s … you know … _having_ that …?”

Gravel crunches under tires outside and Wheeler thumps loudly into the store to further signal Pike’s return and time is up.

Jim gives the book’s cover one last look, says a silent prayer that he’ll soon be seeing his friend look half as happy as either of the men in that picture then he sets the book on the highest shelf.

The trio scrambles to get seated in their usual spots and make themselves look like they hadn’t moved in the thirty or so minutes it had taken Pike to complete his chore.  Jim settles in with newspaper folding open before him just as the bell above the front door jangles with the owner’s entry.

Pike takes three steps into the store, notices the way they’re all not reacting to his return and grinds to a stop; arms slowly rising to cross his broad chest.

“What have you done now?” he asks them like a parent preparing to scold his unruly children.

Jim folds down as corner of the paper to stare innocently at the man while the others all bumble over protests of any guilt.

Pike eyes them all suspiciously as looks carefully around the store for some sign of their mischief.  When he finds nothing out of place, he sighs and unfurls his arms before moving to Jim’s side to pat him on the back with one hand while tugging the newspaper away with the other.

“Might help to read it this way,” Pike says as he return the paper to Jim, the print now turned right side up.

The boys snigger at that as Pike moves behind the counter only to burst out into loud laughter when Jim balls the paper up and hurls it at them all in disgust.

Pike shakes his head at their familiar antics as he bustles about the store, tidying to keep himself occupied.  He knows they’ve been up to something and figures it’ll become evident sooner rather than later.  The more disinterested or unknowing he appeared, the more eager they’d all get to make him see whatever they’d done.

After closing for the day, he goes over to scan the Lending Library for anything new and goes deathly still when his gaze lands upon the lone tome on the top shelf of the bookcase.  Even knowing the store is closed and locked up with no one in it aside from him, he looks around as he yanks the book down and tucks it against his chest to hide the title.

He knows then and there just what the boys had been up to that day and he is ashamed of them all.  They’d clearly put it there for him and his face burnt with the embarrassment of that knowledge.  Regardless of their intentions, they should never have left _this_ in a public place.  It belonged in private, behind closed and tightly locked doors like all the things he’d been reading and watching on the Internet. 

He wasn’t ashamed of his feeling for Henry and they were blessed to be in a town that never cast ignominy upon them, but what they actually _did_ together was personal and private. 

Pike is embarrassed, though, by how little he himself knows of what to do when it comes to intimacy with his partner.  Touching has become easy; kissing addictive, but the rest, the more _sex_ stuff was still being learned.

Tempted to go straight over to Jim’s and give his friend a piece of his mind, Pike moves quickly from the store and locks it up before retiring to his private quarters attached to the building.  Frances prances eagerly at his feet and he takes a calming breath before bending to scratch her ears to return the familiar greeting with one that she’s used to.  She calms him, as always, and he moves to put the book down on the kitchen counter so he can get her a treat from the jar there. 

The second she trots away with her bit of jerky, though, he snatches the book back up and moves to lock himself in his office. 

He hurls the offensive text toward the corner then throws himself into the chair behind his desk.  His dark gaze flicks agitatedly from his desktop computer’s monitor to the discarded book for a minute before he pushes back to his feet to pick the book up and carefully check it for damage before setting it on the desk.  It hadn’t asked for such treatment and he felt very strongly about the respect with which all things, especially books, should be treated.

He sits back down in his chair and focuses on the monitor while his fingers tap on the edge of the desk rather than moving to boot the system up.  He’d only be going online to get a recipe for dinner and he knows he’ll only get distracted by one of those sites that he’s bookmarked lately because all he’s really done the last few weeks is what that cursed book tempted him to do.  Read about gay sex.

The book, though, unlike the anonymity of the computer, makes him wonder if everyone knows.  Knows that he’s never and that he’s been watching pornography for the first time in his life and that he’s been reading erotica like it’s going to go away if he doesn’t get it all read. 

More than likely they’re just guessing and being their over-observant selves trying to help him like he didn’t know how to help himself.  He loves those guys for their support, but there are limits and this is beyond all of those.

He wipes a tired hand over his face, wondering how he’ll face them the following day before dragging that same hand through his hair then giving into curiosity and reaching once more for the book.  If only to see what it was they thought he needed, he opened to the beginning and began to read.

Once it became clear that it was more an encyclopedia than helpful guide, he began to thumb through to entries that interested him and that he felt might apply to his relations with Henry.  Along the way, random entries caught his eye and he read them with varying degrees of shock, curiosity or revulsion. 

“Pike?” Henry is suddenly knocking on the door and jolting Pike’s attention from the book.  “Honey, is everything ok?”

Pike bolts to his feet, slamming the book shut and looking frantically around the room for a place to hide it before he moved to unlock the door.

“Sorry,” he stammers as he opens the barrier for the other man.  “I was … I just…”

“Hey,” Henry frowns up at him with increasing concern and places a calming hand against Pike’s chest.  “Your heart is racing,” his frown deepens and he presses closer, curling his other hand along Pike’s jaw.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he answers, too quickly for even a stranger to buy it.

“Pike,” Henry’s voice chides gently as his blue eyes lock with Pike’s and demand an honest answer.

Pike turns into Henry’s hand so that it cups his cheek for a moment before he pulls back to lead the other man into the office.

“The guys,” he sighs as he moves to the filing cabinet he put the book in.

“Oh,” Henry expels in obvious relief as if those two words were explanation enough.  “What did they do now?  The store’s still standing, so whatever it is can’t have been _that_ bad.”

“I found this tonight in the library.”

Henry takes the book with a look of mild curiosity that immediately turns to understanding once he glimpses the two men almost kissing on the cover and reads the scandalous title.

“Oh, my God,” he takes the book and thumbs it open to scan a few pages.  “But why would they think we’d need something like this?  It’s not like we’re …,” he stops himself when he remembers that _he_ isn’t.  “Regardless,” he snaps the book shut and puts it aside to fill his hands with Pike, “we don’t need a book.”

He smiles playfully and runs his hands over Pike’s shoulders in that way that always sends a shiver down his spine and Henry always seems to know that because he moves his hands to skim down Pike’s back as if chasing that little quake.

“No book can ever convey the joy of gay sex better than the actual having it,” he moves in close and rises up to press a kiss to Pike’s lips; settling for his jaw when Pike turns away.

“But I’ve never-”

“We’ve talked about this,” Henry interrupts, placing his hand over Pike’s mouth since his lips had been spurned.  “Just because you haven’t yet doesn’t mean that you won’t _ever._   When you’re ready, I’m here.  You waited this long for me, I am happy to do the same for you, because we’re _together_ now.  In all the ways that really matter, you’re already mine and you have to know by now that I’m yours.”

His relief at just those last two words is so strong it shakes him and Pike hauls Henry into his arms for a tight hug that the other man returns with one big squeeze using all his strength before he just settles into Pike’s embrace.

They stand there for the longest time, just holding one another while Henry begins a gentle swaying that lulls Pike. 

“They didn’t mean anything by it, you know,” Henry finally says; gentle and loving and he prods at the source of Pike’s reaction to the book.  “They love you and just didn’t think it through.”

“I know.”

“I don’t expect you to be an expert,” he continues.  “I’m certainly not.”

Pike stiffens at that and Henry knows he found the real wound that hand unknowingly been opened by their friends’ gesture.

“No matter who or what has been before, every relationship is its own experience.  Nothing can prepare you for it.  You just do it and if you both care enough, it becomes something that no one else can ever really understand.  No two experiences are the same.  No text book is going to tell you that.  You learn by doing and savor the process.  We’ll find our way there just fine and it’ll be magic when it happens.”

“How can you be so sure?” Pike swallows his pride and voices his greatest fear.

“Because _this_ is magic,” Henry leans back in the cradle of his arms and takes a firm hold of Pike’s face.  “You smile at me and I go blind to the rest of the world.  You speak to me and I can’t imagine anything sounding more wonderful.  You touch me; kiss me … when you hold me, I feel myself lifting of the ground to float to the sky and dance among the star with you always there to make sure I don’t drift so far that I can never return.  I never knew love until y-”

Pike cuts off the words with a hungry kiss, stealing the sentiment into himself and feeling it spread through his veins like a drug.  When Henry spoke of such things; with such passion, it took all of Pike’s strength to keep himself from taking the other man or giving himself completely to Henry.  He hadn’t even decided yet which he wanted first, but Henry was patient and Henry would wait.

They move to the desk chair, Pike flopping down to sit while Henry climbs on his lap, straddling his thighs.  They make out there like the horny adolescents that they never had a chance to be; shirts shoved away to expose their torsos, but no contact below the waist aside from where their groins bumped from their seated position.  They come in their pants with Henry grinning like a fool afterward while Pike blushed at the wetness at his crotch.

The book probably has a word and unnecessarily long explanation for what they just did, but Pike finds as he cleans himself up, that Henry is right.  Sometimes you just learned by doing.

The following morning, Pike slips the book into a paper sack and tucks it away under the counter to wait for the boys to show.  Jim is first, as always, with Lloyd rambling in a short time later.  Rather than make a scene with the whole gathering, Pike contents himself with the ringleaders and pulls the package out to take to them with their morning lattes and paper. 

“I appreciate the thought, but must return your donation to the library.”

Lloyd chokes on his first puff of smoke from a freshly packed pipe and sends a bugged-eyed look Jim’s way for guidance on how to respond.

“Now, Pike, we didn’t -”Jim begins carefully.

“I know,” Pike interrupts with a strained, but reassuring smile.  “It was a nice idea, but some things just can’t be learned from reading.”

“No,” Jim muses as he watches his young friend walk away, “I suppose you can’t.”

“Hey,” Lloyd leans forward to whisper excitedly.  “You think it worked?  Think he got some?”

“Lloyd, my friend, I think it really doesn’t matter so long as he stays as happy as he is just now.”

They turn to watch a positively beaming Pike bend to give Henry a peck on the cheek when the other man walks into the store for a morning coffee before heading to work at the school.  Pike encourages the other man to take what is obviously a fresh baked muffin and the adoration on Henry’s face is intimate enough to cause the old voyeurs to turn back to their papers to give the boys some well-deserved privacy.

**Author's Note:**

> I so utterly and completely loved this movie after seeing it and wanted to do something with the gang from the store. I originally meant it to be a comedy piece, but it ended up striking a serious chord in me, so I hope the end result is a balance between the two. Thank you for heading.


End file.
